SEYMOUR – Picture this: Romeo Langford is holding a baby and smiling for the baby’s mom, who is holding a cellphone and taking a photo. Now picture this: Romeo is signing the wheelchair of a 58-year-old New Albany fan with cerebral palsy named Tim LaDuke. Now picture this: Romeo is signing the front of a kid’s shirt. And the back of another kid’s shirt. Then someone’s cellphone. And now a dollar bill.

Now imagine this: This is how Romeo celebrated winning the Class 4A regional title Saturday night. This is how he spent more than an hour after scoring 39 points to lead New Albany past Center Grove 69-56, while his teammates were cutting down a net and mingling with classmates and then finally sitting down and just watching as Romeo signs more autographs, holds more babies, smiles more smiles.

What is being asked of Romeo Langford, it boggles the mind. Off the court, I’m saying. On the court? Well, yes, New Albany asks so much of him there as well. At 6-5, Romeo is the biggest player on the team but also its most skilled, which means he’s the guy who breaks the press and hits the 3-pointers and grabs 13 rebounds and scores on the low block. Even with a player as dominant as 6-8 junior power forward Trayce Jackson-Davis scoring 24 points, Center Grove was never going to beat New Albany. Hell, for much of Saturday night Center Grove was struggling to outscore Romeo. That’s how good he was. And is.

For 65 minutes he signed autographs on Saturday night, after playing his second game in nine hours, while teammates were cutting the net from one rim and almost finishing off the other before New Albany AD Don Unruh gently pulled him away from the throng of fans and led him to the ladder — where the throng followed. Standing there with scissors in one hand and pieces of the net in the other, Romeo was beseeched by dozens of tiny hands, reaching up for whatever he could bestow upon them.

Picture that.

That’s Romeo Langford cutting the net from the Seymour region and distributing pieces. Looks almost Biblical does it not? pic.twitter.com/Wbj4qTW9nq

At one point three middle-school boys were clamoring for a picture and bickering among themselves. All three wanted to be part of the photo, part of Romeo, but someone had to take the damn thing. Finally one of them pointed at the Jackson County Sheriff’s deputy who was serving as Romeo’s de facto body guard, and the deputy smiled and beckoned for the cellphone. The deputy’s name is Charlie Murphy. After he took the picture and gave back the phone, surrounded by 75 or 100 fans wanting a piece of this high school senior almost an hour after the game, I asked him: Have you ever seen anything like this?

“No,” Charlie Murphy tells me. “This is crazy.”

New Albany's Romeo Langford (right) shoots against Center Grove's Trayce Jackson-Davis (left) and Nate McLain (2) on Saturday during the Regional Final at Seymour High School. March 10, 2018.(Photo: David Lee Hartlage)

But then he remembers something.

“Well, last year,” he says, referring to the Class 4A regional that was held here at Seymour. “With him.”

Murphy is pointing at Romeo.

This state has great players every year, mega-Division I recruits like Greg Oden and Eric Gordon and Kris Wilkes and all those Zeller brothers, but Indiana hasn’t had a phenomenon like this since Damon Bailey. Langford is the state’s best high school player in years, maybe since Glenn Robinson way back in 1991, and he bolsters that magnificent game with that magical name — Romeo — and a gentle persona that has young mothers handing their babies to him as he stands in his sweaty basketball uniform. And on top of all that, he has patience and maturity bordering on the mystical for a kid his age.

Again: He signed autographs and smiled for cameras for 65 minutes on Saturday night, climbing down from the ladder after snipping the net and returning to the throng, not the locker room, because there were several hundred fans still waiting. One of them, George South, is a 48-year-old from Seymour who collects sports memorabilia. He had Romeo sign a baseball he plans to have mounted, and he had Romeo sign a small piece of cardboard he plans to frame, and then George South will put those together with the rest of his Mount Rushmore of sports signatures back home:

Mickey Mantle. Nolan Ryan. Don Larsen. And now, Romeo Langford.

“I’m not doing this for monetary gain,” South was telling me. “I wanted his signature just for me.”

CLOSE

The New Albany Bulldogs advance to the regional finals, beat Bloomington South 65-45.
Clark Wade/IndyStar

I look back at Romeo, and he’s posing for a picture with two small boys. The kids’ father can’t figure out how to get all the faces in the frame — Romeo is so tall, and his boys are so short — so he gestures for Romeo to bend down. Lower … lower …

Romeo is doing the limbo, smiling all the way, and then smiles again when the dad says: Thank you.

More than 45 minutes after the game has ended, the crowd around Romeo is so large that Laurie Striegel has given up on getting a picture. She’s 48, and she has to get going — she works with Pamela Jones at the Volunteers of America satellite office in New Albany, and they need to get wheelchair-bound Bulldogs fan Tim LaDuke back home — but she wants her brush with greatness, too.

New Albany's Romeo Langford (1) is introduced before the first round of the Class 4A regional at Seymour High School on Saturday, March 10, 2018. New Albany defeated Bloomington South 65-45. (Photo: JAKE CRANDALL / COURIER & PRESS)

Striegel pushes gently into the crowd — closer, closer — and reaches out a hand and … there. She’s done it. Her hand brushes against Romeo’s arm, and Striegel says softly to nobody in particular: “I just had to touch him.”

I’m following Striegel out of the gym, walking with her and Jones as they wheel LaDuke toward the parking lot, and asking her: Why?

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New Albany High School senior Romeo Langford (1) drives the ball toward the baseline during the first half a varsity basketball game at Southport High School, Saturday, December 9, 2017. Southport hosted the Tip-Off Classic tournament through the weekend.
Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar

New Albany guard Romeo Langford (1) sits on the bench before a game against Silver Creek on Basketball Day Indiana at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018. New Albany beat Silver Creek 65 to 72.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

New Albany High School senior Romeo Langford (1) takes the ball to the basket during the first half an IHSAA varsity basketball game at Carmel High School, Saturday, December 16, 2017.
Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar

New Albany's Romeo Langford drives around Evansville North's Tanner Turpin on Friday.
New Albany's Romeo Langford (right) drives around Evansville North's Tanner Turpin (left) on Friday at New Albany High School.
David Hartlage/Special to the Co

New Albany guard Romeo Langford (1) heads down court during a game against Silver Creek on Basketball Day Indiana at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018. New Albany beat Silver Creek 65 to 72.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

New Albany High School senior Romeo Langford (1) slam dunks the ball during the first half an IHSAA varsity basketball game at Carmel High School, Saturday, December 16, 2017.
Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar

David Hartlage/Special to The Courier-Journal
New Albany's Romeo Langford is averaging 28 points per game, highlighted by a school-record 44-point performance on Saturday.
New Albany's Romeo Langford (1) shoots against Evansville Harrison on Saturday at New Albany High School. Photo by David Lee Hartlage/Special to the Courier-journal. Dec. 05, 2015
David Lee Hartlage, David Hartlage/Special to the Co

Romeo Langford
New Albany head coach Jim Shannon (in back) watches as Romeo Langford (1) drives against Providence on Friday at New Albany High School. New Albany won 55-40.
David Lee Hartlage, David Lee Hartlage/Special to th

New Albany's #1 Romeo Langford is double teamed by North Central's #3 Mateo Rivera and #14 Emmanuel Little during the North Central vs New Albany basketball game of the Tip Off Classic at Southport Fieldhouse, Saturday, December 10, 2016. North Central won the game 84-60.
Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

North Central's #14 Emmanuel Little moves around New Albany's #1 Romeo Langford to look for a shot during the North Central vs New Albany basketball game of the Tip Off Classic at Southport Fieldhouse, Saturday, December 10, 2016. North Central won the game 84-60.
Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

New Albany High School senior Romeo Langford (1) puts up a shot during the first half a varsity basketball game at Southport High School, Saturday, December 9, 2017. Southport hosted the Tip-Off Classic tournament through the weekend.
Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar

New Albany High School senior Romeo Langford (1) puts up a shot during the first half a varsity basketball game at Southport High School, Saturday, December 9, 2017. Southport hosted the Tip-Off Classic tournament through the weekend.
Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar

New Albany High School senior Romeo Langford (1) puts up a shot during the first half a varsity basketball game at Southport High School, Saturday, December 9, 2017. Southport hosted the Tip-Off Classic tournament through the weekend.
Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar

New Albany High School senior Romeo Langford (1) pulls down a rebound during the first half a varsity basketball game at Southport High School, Saturday, December 9, 2017. Southport hosted the Tip-Off Classic tournament through the weekend.
Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar

New Albany High School senior Romeo Langford (1), left, and Fort Wayne North Side High School junior Keion Brooks (12) during the first half a varsity basketball game at Southport High School, Saturday, December 9, 2017. Southport hosted the Tip-Off Classic tournament through the weekend.
Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar

New Albany High School senior Romeo Langford (1) its stopped en route to the basket by Fort Wayne North Side High School senior Brandan Johnson (1) during the first half a varsity basketball game at Southport High School, Saturday, December 9, 2017. Southport hosted the Tip-Off Classic tournament through the weekend.
Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar